AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Sure." Bolivar didn't sound particularly interested, but I already had a picture of Jack and me up on my screen. It was actually my background pic and had been for the past week. It had replaced the pic of my dad and me when I'd been a kid thatI'd kept there for years.
"There was this time, like six months into dating him, that I'd thought he could have been the one," I said as I got up and brought my phone over for him to see. Jack was a good looking guy. He had gorgeous shiny black hair and big brown eyes. And his smile was huge and always there for whoever was around him. I missed him. I wished that I was with him then instead of stuck there with Bolivar for another month before I went for my two-week break over the holidays.
Bolivar looked at the picture and then handed it back to me without a word.
"Well?" I asked him.
But Bolivar just shrugged and popped another of his truffles into his mouth. "What would you like me to say? I don't often go around commenting on the physical attributes of human boys. He looks like a teenager, the same as you do. You two appear happy together. I don't believe in anything as predetermined as the one, but if there is only one person out there for you, then hopefully you and he get to enjoy a good long life together where you visit him for four weeks in the year and he pines miserably for you for the other forty-eight."
I hadn't really considered that. "My great-grandfather, he had a child—why didn't he choose to have my grandfather take his place? Was it because he didn't want his kid going through this life as your assistant like he was?"
"No. Your great-grandfather enjoyed being my assistant more than any of the others before him. I had to push him to leave, and when he finally did, he left angry at me, bitter and swearing that he'd stay that way for the rest of his life."
That sounded really dramatic. "I guess I'll meet a girl, then and maybe she'll understand if I explain…" No, that wouldn't work. No one could know about the dragons. "Then we'll adopt."
Bolivar looked bored. "Your bloodline is what ties you to me, not who you adopt or who you marry. If you want out of this, you'll have to get someone pregnant. I don't really care who it is. I don't even care if you do it at all." He pursed his lips, and I started to tell him that I did care, but then he continued. "You may not need to have a child at all, though. And you may not be my assistant for that many more years, either. I'm dying. In the simplest terms that a human like you can understand, my dragon self is dying. Soon enough I won't be a dragon anymore, I'll just be a human, much the same as you are, and when that day comes you won't be tied to me at all."
At first, I thought he was lying, but then he didn't say anything more. He just sat there as if he was waiting for me to react. I wasn't going to lie to him, I was glad that I wouldn't be spending the rest of my life here with him. But I also felt sorry for him, and I was worried about him. "Will it hurt when you die?"
"I don't know. Maybe it will. It would be nice to know when it will happen, but otherwise I'm fine with my fate."
He sounded like he was, too. I went and sat back down. "Do you have any idea how long it'll be?"
Bolivar shook his head. "If you want to do anything, you should do it soon. You've been here with me about a month and you've been a big help, but I can do my own dishes. You don't need to feel like you're stuck here with me. I've got the money to send you anywhere you want to go, so pick a destination and I'll send you there. All I ask is that if I call you to come back, that you don't hesitate."
I looked down at the picture of Jack and me as I thought about his offer. I wanted to take him up on it, but it felt a bit like a vacation I hadn't earned. I'd grown up with this idea of what it would be to serve him, but that wasn't the reality of my life with Bolivar. Maybe generations before me had been vital for thedragons, but I wasn't vital at all. I wasn't even all that useful. I felt like a drain on him. Maybe I could be useful to him in some situations, someday, but I didn't seem to be right now.
"You could take him too, if you wanted to," Bolivar offered.
Putting my phone away, I turned back to Bolivar. "Thanks, but I'm okay. I think Jack would be pretty freaked out if I offered to take him on vacation with me. He doesn't know about my family's job with you. He thinks I'm spending time with a family friend right now. I'll see him next month when I go home for Christmas."
Bolivar shrugged and went back to eating his truffles.
When it came time for me to go home, Bolivar called a taxi for me. I was ready to leave, but at the same time I felt bad for him being alone over the holidays. I’d already packed the one suitcase I would be taking with me. "Do dragons celebrate the holidays?"
He was in the kitchen getting a glass of water. "Not really. I hope you enjoy them while you're there, and if you see your great-grandfather, please say hi for me, but otherwise don't spare me another thought while you're gone. I won't be lonely here. I'll read and I'll watch a movie or two, and I'll be fine here."
All he usually did was read and watch movies. And, of course, eat his chocolate truffles. I thought he must have been very bored all the time, but after being alive for as long as he had been, maybe it didn't bother him. Maybe he was fulfilled in a way I couldn't have been with such a simple existence.
I turned and looked out at the falling snow. We had four new inches, on top of the six inches that had fallen overnight. I wasn't worried about the taxi getting me to the airport, or for my plane to be able to take off. I figured everything would go well.
"Will you be warm enough?" I called over to him.
He came out of the kitchen. "I'm not a child. Stopworrying about me so much."
I kind of liked worrying about him, though. He was really freaking old, and he pretty much did nothing. Which, maybe, was exactly how he wanted to be. I hoped that my retirement someday was made up of chocolate, big books, and movies just like his.
"Have you thought about what you'll be collecting for me?" Bolivar asked.
I'd thought about it, but I had no idea what I was going to be getting him. I'd been in his collection room more than once. He had so many different things, all of them treasures in their own rights. I had no idea how I was going to add anything to a collection as extensive as his already was.
"The taxi's here," I said as it pulled up in front of his house. I was ready to go, and yet I hesitated before opening the door. "See you in a few weeks?"
"I'll still be here. I'll probably still be a dragon, too. Have a good time with your family."
I nodded, and then I left.
Back home in Missouri there was hardly any snow on the ground, and I spent my second afternoon back with Jack. My first day had been entirely claimed by my father. Jack and I hugged at the restaurant and then, surprisingly, he leaned in to kiss my cheek.
